Rivalry between Sony and Microsoft is good for business, says EA

Console wars may be fun for fanboys and girls, and annoying to some; but in all it’s good for the industry, thinks EA’s Peter Moore. So much so, that if Microsoft and Sony weren’t duking it out at retail, there would only be one console powerhouse – which would not be a good thing for EA.

“It keeps them focused. They have to outdo each other,” he said. “The amount of investment they make in our industry is important. If it’s true that Microsoft has some catching up to do, having spent a lot of time in Redmond, Washington, I know what will happen up there. I can guarantee you that Don Mattrick has the resources corralled to make that happen. Steve Ballmer will be driving that hard from the top.

“The dust will settle on E3. People are going to declare winners and losers. It’s just the nature of the beast. Then you have the critical period, which I’ve run twice. E3 is over. Now it’s launch minus 122 days. It’s less about what you see at first blush at E3, where you’re still working in a lot of instances with alpha software, or even pre-alpha. What you’re going to see at Gamescom, which I think is going to be a very important show this year.

“Late August, if you’re not cranking on next gen in late August and that stuff isn’t looking truly next gen, then you have a real issue you have to be able to deal with.”

Moore said as a major third-party publisher, Sony and Microsoft both reach out to EA for feedback, because they are all partners when it comes to game creation.

“We’ve been around the block a lot longer, in a lot of instances, than their teams have,” he said. “We’ve seen it from both sides. They will, I think, represent our opinion on things very aggressively in their meetings. They’ll be interested in what we have to say. That’ll add to their data [along with public opinion].

“They have to get all that data in and figure out where they go from here. That’s pretty standard operating procedure when you go post-E3. You don’t spend the money and not have a full official debrief when you get back. What have we learned, what do we need to do, and when do we need to do it so we get our launch right?

“I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to say to Don [Mattrick] because I can see that headline: ‘Moore Says – Don, Get Your Shit Together’. That’s not what I’m going to say. But I was in Don’s position [before]. They will do what they need to do. It’s a very talented group of people.

“You’ve got two very motivated, large, multinational, global corporations saying: ‘We’ve gotta get this right. What is it going to take financially?’ It feels good if you’re sat in the middle of that.”

Microsoft and Sony will launch Xbox One and PS4,respectively, this holiday season